Prescribed Burn #1

I participated in my first prescribed burn today up on the Montague Plains, just a couple miles north of my house. The land is owned by the Mass. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, and it is actively managed for wildlife habitat, namely box turtles and various barrens-specific lepidopterans. These animals require the (once upon a time) naturally occurring open-canopy pitch pine-scrub oak vegetation for successful reproduction, and fire is the necessary ecological entity to create that specific habitat. So that's what we did today, we added fire into a fire-dependent ecosystem in a controlled and systematic manner. The above picture is of my advisor putting down fire in some bluestem grass, a native species that has recovered thanks to several years of fire management. Overall, I obtained a full spectrum of experiences today - spraying water from a bladder bag, raking fuels, and putting down fire with a drip torch. For evidence I have my sore muscles, my sooty boots, and a fire-induced sunburn from a particularly hot patch of flaring grass. Here's a picture of the end result. Not much to look at, but it's not the charred earth that matters, it's the ecological aftermath.